2014 was the year Canadians searched for gold in Sochi. We searched for scores in Brazil. We searched for answers on Ebola. We searched for our favourite movies starring Robin Williams. In 2014 the world searched Google two trillion times. And Google’s 14th annual Year In Search offers a revealing look at the people, places and events that sent Canadians searching for answers this past year.

Year-In-Search uses data from multiple sources while filtering out spam and repeat queries, to build top-ten lists across pop culture, sports, music, politics, news, and more. And make sure to check out the interactive data visualization for Google’s global search trends - encompassing queries from over 70 countries!

Global and Local Conversations

The World Cup was the top trending search on mobile devices by Canadians in 2014, while the sudden passing of iconic funnyman Robin Williams in August dominated the year’s celebrity and entertainment searches. Closer to home, a scandal swirling around Jian Ghomeshi made the former radio host the top trending Canadian. Our nation also went online to honour Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and to mark the passing of a Habs legend. Meanwhile, Eugenie Bouchard’s incredible year on the professional tennis circuit made her the top searched Canadian athlete.

The Big Questions

‘What is ALS?’ Was Canada’s trending question of the year, proving that dumping cold water on a charity campaign can be a recipe for viral success. ‘How to Vote’ was the top trending ‘How to’ search in Canada, reflecting a number of provincial and municipal elections across the country. And – spoiler alert! – ‘Who killed Joffrey?’ was Canada’s top trending whodunnit, as Game of Thrones fans went online searching for answers. While the Polar Vortex dominated Canadian searches in January, searches for Frozen the Movie (the top trending film of 2014) suggest that Elsa the Snow Queen ruled the north in 2014.

Canada Went Mobile in 2014

Eight out of ten of the top trending technology searches in Canada were related to mobile devices or wearable technology. The larger format iPhone6 and the Nexus 6 were one and two on the list, and the Moto 360 was a top trending gadget as Canadians went online to learn more about the next generation of wearable technologies.

As we set out to embark on another year of big global moments and national conversations, take a moment to pause and reflect back on 2014. From trending diets and recipes (Shepherd’s pie!) to the top musicians and federal politicians of 2014, enjoy a look back at the year that was through the lens of Google search.

A rap parody from a pair of Canadian YouTubers. Some displeased celebrities. Americans eating poutine for the first time. An alternate ending to one of the biggest movies ever.

These were the moments that captured Canadians’ attention this year. As 2014 draws to a close, YouTube Canada is sharing the videos that shaped our year with the release of our annual Rewind list of the top trending videos that captured the spirit of the year.

This year's Canadian top trending list includes a fun spectrum of video hits that set the cultural trends from some of the most popular channels. To determine the top videos of the year, YouTube Rewind looked at the many ways people interact, share and like videos, to identify the ones that everybody was talking about in 2014.

Four years ago, YouTube introduced the skip button to let consumers choose whether to watch ads… or not. Now, all ads are skippable. From thankful ATMs to puppy love, today we’re also releasing the list of ads that resonated the most with Canadians in 2014, See more of the year’s top ads on Think With Google.

Check back later today when we update the blog to include the top trending global list once its released, but in the meantime other fun trending videos in Canada are:

Canada. You rock. It's been less than a year since we brought Google Play Music to Canada and already it’s one of our top performing markets. As a bit of a thank you, this holiday season, the Google Play Music team will be bringing some of our favourite Canadian musicians ‘home for the holidays’ across three cities: City and Colour in Toronto December 4th, New Pornographers in Vancouver on December 11th and Coeur de Pirate in Montreal on December 18th.

Look for special invites and updates from the bands and local partners to learn how you can be one of the few lucky music fans to attend these exclusive shows.
We will update the blog with highlights and images from each of the shows in the coming weeks. Additionally, throughout the month of December we will be featuring great music and bands from each of the three cities in Google Play. Starting with Toronto, you can find special discount offers for select local artists and curated playlists, and check back for Vancouver and Montreal.

In a recent survey by Google Canada, nearly half of Canadians (46%) told us that streaming music has helped them discover more new artists, and over 30% cited that what they love most about streaming music is the an extensive library. So... if you are not familiar with Google Play Music yet, enjoy 60 days of unlimited music streaming as a limited time offer during the weeks of our 'home for the holidays' events. Google Play Music is also the only platform with a locker feature that allows you to store your own collection of music for free along side our library of over 30 million songs.

#PlayMusicCanada Update - December 5th, 2014

Thanks City and Colour fans, for joining us at the Great Hall last night for his acoustic performance and for helping to make our first home for the holidays concert a really memorable event. If you haven't heard City and Colour's music before, take a listen at Google Play Music or take advantage of limited time discounted prices on albums from tons of great Toronto artists.

Vancouver, you're up next! We can't wait to bring The New Pornographers home for the holidays on December 11th!

#PlayMusicCanada - Update - December 16
A big thanks to the fans of The New Pornographers for hanging with us last week during their special performance at The Wise Hall and Lounge in Vancouver. The show is over, but keep the party goign with The New Pornographers' music on Google Play Music. You can stream or download your favourites today and stay tuned for updates and exclusive content from the show.

We are gearing up for Montreal later this week and we cannot wait to groove to Quebec's own Coeur de pirate.

#PlayMusicCanada - Montreal Update - December 19
Wow! Merci, Montreal. What a way to end our home for the holiday, Google Play Music campaign. The venue, the music, the fans could not have made for a more beautiful and festive conclusion. Looking forward to celebrating with you all again some time in the near future.

Don't forget, we were recording the live shows, and hope to have a special treat for you all at the Google Play Music store in 2015. Stay tuned.Posted by Blaire Nichols, Music Partner Manager for Google Play, recently listened to "Hometown Toronto" Playlist

Heading into Grey Cup weekend, Canadian searches on Google for the Stamps and Ticats are in a virtual dead-heat across Canada. Online searches for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are highest in Ontario and the Yukon, while searches for the Calgary Stampeders are highest in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Battle of the Bellies

And geography doesn’t just define allegiances... It may also hint at what food you might see at Grey Cup parties this weekend. Because if there’s meatloaf on your plate this Sunday, there’s a good chance you’re cheering on the Ticats! Searches for Chili recipes are on the rise in Alberta, while searches for meatloaf recipes are spiking in Ontario.

The Players

This week searches for Tiger-Cats semifinals hero Brandon Banks are outpacing his quarterback Zach Collaros by a margin of 3:1. And Canadians are searching 66 percent more frequently for Stampeders’ starting running back Jon Cornish than QB Bo Levi Mitchell.

Grey Cup ... Caribbean Edition

Internationally, searches for the Grey Cup are historically highest in the UK and the US. However, over the past seven days the largest international search volume for the Grey Cup is in Caribbean, with searches highest in the Turks and Caicos, Cayman Islands and Cuba - perhaps Canadians vacationing, or maybe scouting locations for an all-star game!?

Parade route planning?

Top trending terms associated with the Grey Cup include tickets, halftime show, pools and “Grey Cup weekend”. Despite this year’s Grey Cup taking place in climate-controlled BC Place, searches for “coldest Grey Cup” are also on the rise. Finally, it looks like some Canadian football fans are getting a little ahead of themselves: there’s an uptick in Grey Cup Parade searches.

Editor's Note: This blog is cross-posted from the official Chrome Blog

In time for the epic conclusion to the Hobbit trilogy we’ve updated the Chrome Experiment, “A Journey Through Middle-earth.” Whether you’re a hobbit, wizard or dwarf (oh yeah, humans too) you can now relive all of the epic Middle-earth adventures, from Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to Bilbo’s final battle in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, in theaters December 17th. This year's Chrome Experiment was developed by North Kingdom in collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM).

Your adventure starts on a beautiful, interactive map of Middle-earth where you can explore all 27 locations from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies. This year’s map is rich with 3D animations highlighting the paths of eight key characters, including Bilbo, Gandalf and Bard.

Completely new for this year’s version is a peer-to-peer battle game where you can challenge your friends to a test of skill. The peer-to-peer gameplay experience was built primarily using the latest web technologies, including WebRTC and WebGL. It’s touch optimized for laptops, phones and tablets, bringing you a stunning interactive experience across all your devices.

This holiday season, shoppers will be savvier, more informed, and more connected than ever before. That’s because three quarters of Canadians say they will be doing online research before buying holiday gifts this year.

But nearly two thirds of small and independent retailers in Canada don’t have an online presence.

An online presence helps shoppers find your small business whether they're down the street, across Canada, or around the world. At the same time, more than half of small business owners tell us that it is more difficult to be a small business today compared to 10 years ago.

More than a third of SMB owners say that the way customers shop has changed

More than a quarter say that customers are doing more research before coming into stores

One in four feel that its harder to reach customers today

That’s the inspiration behind Retail Spark, a new initiative that we’ve launched with Retail Council of Canada and Shopify, to help small and independent retailers connect with new customers and grow their business during the crucial holiday season and beyond.

We heard from retail industry leaders - big and small - who shared how their businesses have prospered on the web. Event attendees learned how to have their stores found on Search and Maps, as well as how they can promote their businesses online. Small businesses also met with gurus from Shopify, who shared how to set up an eCommerce shop and start selling online.

Getting online can make a big difference for small businesses. Retailers that are interested in learning more about the digital tools available to them can download a free Digital Starter Kit. Success stories and videos from the events are also available at retailspark.withgoogle.com.

Thank you to the small and independent retailers everywhere that joined us on the road. See you on the web!

You've watched, shared, remixed, invented, parodied and whatevered your favorite songs, making YouTube the ultimate place for artists and fans to connect. To celebrate all that music and unlock new ways to enjoy, we’re making it easier to find new music on YouTube and rock out to old favourites.

A new home just for music

Starting today, you’ll see a new home just for music on your YouTube app for Android, iOS and on YouTube.com that shows your favorite music videos, recommended music playlists based on what you’re into and playlists of trending music across YouTube. You can find a playlist to perfectly fit your mood, whether that’s a morning motivators playlist or Boyce Avenue YouTube Mix. Check out the newest songs from channels you subscribe to, like FKA twigs or Childish Gambino. Or quickly find the songs you’ve been playing over and over and over again.

Over the past year Chromecast has added hundreds of your favorite apps, and brought anything on the web to the TV via Android mirroring and Chrome tab casting. Just in time for the holidays, we’re adding even more apps to the list. So whether you’re looking forward to a quiet evening watching your favorite holiday heartwarmer or a rousing game night with the gang, there’s something for everyone.

Family-friendly games for Chromecast
Chromecast uses your phone or tablet as the controller and your TV screen like a game or score board to let you play classic games like Wheel of Fortune or Hasbro’s Monopoly Dash, Scrabble Blitz, Connect Four Quads and Simon Swipe on your big screen.

If you prefer to dance around, check out Just Dance Now. Your smartphone can tell if you’re fist pumping high or shaking your hands down low, which earns you points. To show off your mental moves instead, Big Web Quiz and Emoji Party for Chromecast bring trivia to the TV. Astound your friends with your answers to questions like: How many goats tall is Taylor Swift? What does 'Queen of Hearts' look like in emoji? Big Web Quiz uses Google Knowledge Graph to create hundreds of questions, while Emoji Party uses your knowledge of emojis to guess movie titles based on the pictures.

There's no hassle or expense with extra controllers. Anyone with a phone or tablet can join in on any of these games, so download these apps from the Play Store or App Store so all your family and friends can shake it, show off their smarts or just play.

Easily explore and discover new things to cast
To make it easier for you to navigate through the many great apps available with Chromecast and find exactly what you’d like to cast, we’ve added category tabs to the chromecast.com/apps page. Choose from TV & Movies, Music & Audio, Games, Sports, Photos & Video, or More.
Post Content
Posted by Wendi Zhang, three-peat Scrabble champ

Editor's Note: This blog post has been cross posted from the Official Gmail Blog.

Today, the Gmail app for Android is getting updated with a more modern style, sleeker transitions, and a few other handy improvements.

As part of the new design, there’s now a convenient reply button at the bottom of every message, making it quick and easy to continue a conversation when you’re on the go. And if you access the app on your Android tablet, you’ll notice it’s easier to switch between accounts and the different inbox categories.

Lastly, we know some of you have email addresses that aren’t Gmail (it’s okay to admit it). The updated Gmail app now supports all email providers, which means you can now set up a separate inbox for, say, your Yahoo Mail or Outlook.com addresses using POP/IMAP.

The updated Gmail app will support all Android 4.0+ devices, so look for it in Google Play over the next few days and let us know what you think!

Today we’re introducing a brand new Google Calendar app. It’s designed to be a helpful assistant, so you can spend less time managing your day, and more time enjoying it.

It takes a lot of work to stay on top of your schedule, after all. You have to manually enter that hotel or dinner reservation, then update it if your plans change. You have to hunt around for addresses and phone numbers, then add them to your events. And if you’re on a mobile device, you might just give up on these kinds of tasks entirely.

Calendars (like email) should do better—especially on phones and tablets—so we set out to build one that’s always at your service. Here are just some of the ways the new Calendar app can help.

Events from Gmail: now emails can turn into Calendar events automatically
Every time you book a flight, buy concert tickets, or make a hotel reservation, odds are you get an email with dates, times and other important details. But who has the time (or patience) to copy and paste all this into their calendar? In the new Calendar app these kinds of emails become events automatically, complete with things like flight numbers and check-in times. They’ll even stay updated in real time if your flight's delayed, or you receive another email update.

Assists: suggestions that save you time
Of course, not all event info arrives in your inbox. You often have to piece together phone numbers, addresses and attendees from lots of different sources, then add them to your calendar manually. With Assists, Calendar can suggest titles, people and places as you type, as well as adapt to your preferences over time. For example, if you often go running with Peter in Central Park, Calendar can quickly suggest that entire event when you type ‘r-u-n.’

Schedule View: easy to scan and lovely to look at
Your calendar is more than just a list of dates and times—it’s your life! So Calendar’s new Schedule view includes photos and maps of the places you’re going, cityscapes of travel destinations, and illustrations of everyday events like dinner, drinks and yoga. These images will bring a little extra beauty to your day, and make it easy to see what’s going on at a glance—perfect for when you’re checking in from your phone or tablet.

The new Google Calendar will work on all Android 4.1+ devices. It’s available today on all devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop, and you’ll be able to download the update from Google Play in the coming weeks. (And yes, we’re also working on a version for iPhone!) Learn more at g.co/calendar.

Ten years ago this week, Google opened its doors in Montreal, drawn here by some very talented developers who didn’t want to leave their charming city – and the community they were a part of – in la belle province. In the decade since, Google’s office of engineers, developers and digital marketing experts has grown up right alongside the city’s vibrant tech and startup community.

As Montreal's tech community has grown, so has its entrepreneurial spirit and startup culture. Today, Montreal is home to some of the most promising startups in Canada. That’s why we’re excited to announce that working with Notman House – one of Canada’s leading startup incubators – the Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hub Network is expanding to Montreal, making it the 9th city in the network, the 2nd in Canada, and the 1st in a French-speaking community.

Tech hubs like Notman House have sprung up in cities across the globe, drawing on shared expertise and resources to help developers and entrepreneurs launch new ideas and turn them into thriving young companies. Google’s Tech Hub Network is the first formal network of its kind, and at a little over a year old, we are excited to link aspiring entrepreneurs and startup founders from across the continent to one another, and to open new doors to mentorship, investment and growth.

For startups working with Notman House, the Tech Hub Network puts new resources at their fingertips, including funding, training and mentorship opportunities, and access to Google programs and products throughout the network including:

An annual Demo Day where startups from the network come to Silicon Valley and pitch to investors;

The Google for Entrepreneurs Global Passport, where entrepreneurs from each hub can work for free at spaces designated at any other hub in the network.

As a former startup ourselves, a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation is in our DNA. With Notman House and our Google for Entrepreneurs programs, we hope Montreal’s world-class startup community will grow that much faster, building transformative products and companies that will take the world by storm.Posted by Shibl Mourad, Engineering Director for Google Montreal

Today, we’re introducing something new. It’s called Inbox. Years in the making, Inbox is by the same people who brought you Gmail, but it’s not Gmail: it’s a completely different type of inbox, designed to focus on what really matters.

Email started simply as a way to send digital notes around the office. But fast-forward 30 years and with just the phone in your pocket, you can use email to contact virtually anyone in the world…from your best friend to the owner of that bagel shop you discovered last week.

With this evolution comes new challenges: we get more email now than ever, important information is buried inside messages, and our most important tasks can slip through the cracks—especially when we’re working on our phones. For many of us, dealing with email has become a daily chore that distracts from what we really need to do—rather than helping us get those things done.

If this all sounds familiar, then Inbox is for you. Or more accurately, Inbox works for you. Here are some of the ways Inbox is at your service:

Bundles: stay organized automatically
Inbox expands upon the categories we introduced in Gmail last year, making it easy to deal with similar types of mail all at once. For example, all your purchase receipts or bank statements are neatly grouped together so that you can quickly review and then swipe them out of the way. You can even teach Inbox to adapt to the way you work by choosing which emails you’d like to see grouped together.

Highlights: the important info at a glance
Inbox highlights the key information from important messages, such as flight itineraries, event information, and photos and documents emailed to you by friends and family. Inbox will even display useful information from the web that wasn’t in the original email, such as the real-time status of your flights and package deliveries. Highlights and Bundles work together to give you just the information you need at a glance.

Reminders, Assists, and Snooze: your to-do’s on your own terms
Inbox makes it easy to focus on your priorities by letting you add your own Reminders, from picking up the dry cleaning to giving your parents a call. No matter what you need to remember, your inbox becomes a centralized place to keep track of the things you need to get back to.

And speaking of to-do’s, Inbox helps you cross those off your list by providing Assists—handy pieces of information you may need to get the job done. For example, if you write a Reminder to call the hardware store, Inbox will supply the store’s phone number and tell you if it's open. Assists work for your email, too. If you make a restaurant reservation online, Inbox adds a map to your confirmation email. Book a flight online, and Inbox gives a link to check-in.

Of course, not everything needs to be done right now. Whether you’re in an inconvenient place or simply need to focus on something else first, Inbox lets you Snooze away emails and Reminders. You can set them to come back at another time or when you get to a specific location, like your home or your office.

Get started with Inbox
Starting today, we’re sending out the first round of invitations to give Inbox a try, and each new user will be able to invite their friends. If Inbox can’t arrive soon enough for you, you can email us at inbox@google.com to get an invitation as soon as more become available.

When you start using Inbox, you’ll quickly see that it doesn’t feel the same as Gmail—and that’s the point. Gmail’s still there for you, but Inbox is something new. It’s a better way to get back to what matters, and we can’t wait to share it with you.